18. Tropes and figures of speech (Скребнев ю. М.)

St. Dev.= figures of speech: figures of replacement and figures of cooccurence.

Figures of speech are the stylistic devices of whatever kind, including tropes.

TROPES (figures of replacement – deal with renamimg) are divided into 2 classes:

• figures of quantity which consist of two opposite varieties: overstatement (hyperbole) – exaggeration, and understatement (meiosis) – weakening.

• figures of quality comprise three types of renaming:

1. transfer based upon a real connection between the object of nomination (объект назначения) and the object whose name is used – metonymy; (+ synecdoche, periphr, euphem.)

2. transfer by similarity (likeness, affinity сходство) of the two objects – metaphor; (+personif, allusion, antonomasia)

3. transfer by contrast: the two objects (actions, qualities) are diametrically opposite – verbal irony;

Figures of quantity

Hyperbole (overstatement)– deliberate (нарочно) exaggeration of the features of the object. Sphere of use of hyperbole – coll. sp: a thousand pardons; haven’t seen you for ages and etc. Hyberole: trite, original, developed (through the whole contex)

An expressive hyperbole - exaggeration on a big scale. It isillogical, smth unreal, impossible and paradoxical, is employed for humoristic purposes.

F. e.: “One after another those people lay down on the ground to laugh – and two of them died”. (Mark Twain).. (Typical of the American English)., H. Is used in pleonastic phrases – Ex. silly fools

Meiosis (understatement) - lessening, weakening, reducing the real characteristics of the object. (Ex. I will cost you a pretty penny - not a penny but many pounds. (British manner of speech).

Litotes. - specific form of meiosis is expressing an idea by means of negating (отрицание) the opposite idea.

“Jeff is in the line of unilligal graft. (O. Henry) (two negative affixes within one word unilligal - “professional” activity of the swindler Jefferson Peter.

1) not+unlikely2) not bad3)not+without

Figures of Quality

1. Metaphor – hidden comparison

Trite (ready-made) metaphors(in poetry, in Bible, in imaginative prose) that have gained wide currency (распространение), and become known to everybody.

chewing the rag (= were chatting about it) (Chase)

A sustained (устойчивая) m. consist of trite metaphors expressing or implying (подразумевающий) a certain logical development of ideas. This phenomenon – incongruence (несоответствие) of the parts of a sustained metaphor – is called catachresis (or mixed metaphors).

“The Tooth of Time, which has already dried many of tear, will let the grass grow over this painful wound”.

The expression tooth of time implies (подразумевать) that time, like a greedy (жадный) tooth, devours (поглощать) everything, makes everything disappear or be forgotten.

2.a) Personification is another variety of metaphor. Personification is attributing (присваивание) human properties to lifeless objects – mostly to abstract notions (абстрактные понятия), such as thoughts, actions, intentions (намерения), emotions, seasons of the year, etc.

Signals of personification:

1)The use of personal pronouns he and she with reference to lifeless things is often a more or less sure of this stylistic device: (Night – she)

2)Personification is often effected (осуществляется) by direct address.

3)Capitalization of the word which expresses a personified notion.

b) Apostrophe (subtype of personification) is a diagressive adress to smth inanimate which doesn’t present (Ex. to adress to the ocean.

3.Allusion - a special variety of metaphor, is a brief reference to some literary or historical event.

4. Antonomasia is a variety of allusion. It is the use of the name of historical, literary, mythological, or biblical personage applied to a person whose characteristic features resemble those of the well-known original. (Ex.: Don Juan)

Types:1) Proper instead of common: (metaphoric and metonimic) Ex He is a hercules2) Common instead of proper (Miss Sharp, Miss Bue Eyes)

5. a)Metonymy - is applying the name of the object to another object that is in some way connected with the first: I was followed by a pair of heavy boots.

Types of metonymy-forming interrelations (взаимозависимость) of two objects are manifold (множество). F.e., they may be (Ex.Names of tools (средства) instead of names of actions:“Give every man thine ear and few thy voice”. (Shakespeare); -Consequence (последствие) instead of cause;-Characteristic feature of the object:

“Blue suit grinned, might even have winked. But big nose in the grey suit still stared”. (Priestly); crown for king or queen.)

Relation b/w objects:

-Concrete things instead of abstract notions (symbol)

-containder instead of contained (the kettle boils)

-proxetiny (the round table)

-material (the marble statue spoke)

-instrument action (lend me your ears)

-name invention (diesel)

-possession person 9she married money)

b) Synecdoche – the simplest kind of metonymy.

- using the name of a part to denote the whole or vice verse, e.g.: the word hands used instead of the word worker(s);

- using of the singular when the plural is meant: a hundred head of cattle;

Ex. crown = king;cross = christianity

6. Periphrasis – description of what could be named directly, it is naming the characteristic features of object instead of naming object itself (is related to metonymy). What helps to differentiate periphrasis from metonymy is that the former (последний) cannot be expressed by one linguistic unit (one word).

an exciting book:- a thriller (using of trite metonymy);- two hundred pages of blood-curdling narrative (periphrasis);

Examples: the fair sex (woman); my better half (my wife).

Stylistic periphrasis can be divided into:

Logical - based on the essential property of the object;

figurative – based on metaphor or metonymy: to tie the not = to marry; it can not the humorous effect.

7. Euphemism is a word or phrase which replaces an unpleasant word or expression by more acceptable one. It is variety of periphrasis. F. e.: “to die” has the following euphemisms – “to be no more”, “to depart”, etc. So euphemisms are synonyms which aim is to produce mild effect. Groups of euphemism:- religious-moral-medical-political

8 Allegory. The term is traitionally used in stylistics, although it pertains to (принадлежит) linguistics no more than such terms as novel, poem, plot and so on. It means expressing abstract ideas through concrete pictures. It refers to a whole text.

Proverbs are shot allegorical texts: All is not gold that glitters (= Appearances are deceptive); Beauty lies in lover’s eyes (=Feeling excites imagination).

Allegory is found in philosophical or satirical novels.

9. Irony - a trope based on direct opposition of the meaning to the sense.

Kinds:

1. Antiphrasis represents utterances (высказывания) that can have only an ironical sense of which is evident (очевидный) to any native speaker – utterances tat can have only an ironical message. The peculiar (специфический) word-order and stereotyped words make up set phrases implying (подразумевать) just the opposite of what they seem to manifest (обнаруживать).

That’s a pretty kettle of fish! (Хорошенькое дельце! Весёленькая история!)

2) The overwhelming majority of utterances can be understood either literally, or ironically, especially when we deal with written texts.

In oral speech, irony is often made prominent by emphatic intonation. In writing, the most typical signs of irony are inverted commas or italics. On the whole, irony is used with the aim of critical evaluation of the thing spoken about.

Semantic Figures of Co-occurrence - (logical comparison) – deals with semant. Relationship expressed at the lengh of the wholw textstudied by syntagmatic semaceology

1)Figures of identity - simile;

2)Figures of contrast:oxymoron, antithesis;

3)Figures of inequality: pun, climax, anti-climax, zeugma (semantic falls chain)